


this place is really nowhere

by pr_scatterbrain



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Found Family, M/M, Russian Knitting Circle, Secret Relationship, Secretly Dating, Vancouver Winter Olympics, Winter Olympics, oblivious boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 08:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4870085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pr_scatterbrain/pseuds/pr_scatterbrain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“We should find Sasha someone,” Evgeni says, because they should.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Alex swallows the last of his drink. “God Zhenya, not in front of Sid.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Evgeni rolls his eyes. “English, yes,” he says, switching over seamlessly.</i>
</p><p>aka the misadventures of Team Russia (plus Sid) at Vancouver.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this place is really nowhere

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saxifandomck (doantyouforgetaboutme)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doantyouforgetaboutme/gifts).



 

 

 

Evgeni is single when it starts. Or sort of single.

“More single than not single,” Sidney says with a shrug, as if he is repeating someone else’s words. Probably Jordy’s.

 

 

(But that isn’t where it starts.)

 

 

At Vancouver, Evgeni is a rookie all over again. His teammates remind him of this constantly. Or to be specific, teammate. To be more specific, Alexander Ovechkin reminds Evgeni of this. Alex, as he won’t let Evgeni forget, has one winter game already under his belt. One to Evgeni’s zero. This, among other things, means Alex brims with a confidence in himself and his ability. For the most part, Evgeni doesn’t particularly care. To be playing for his country still feels surreal. He isn’t the only one. Sidney grins a little when Evgeni catches him finishing up practice with Team Canada.

In Vancouver everyone wants Sidney’s time and attention. Yet for all the demands on him, Sidney’s always freely given Evgeni both. Together they sit on the side of the rink and Evgeni tells Sidney gossip which makes him laugh. Afterwards, outfitted in red and white that doesn’t match, the two of them end up at lunch together. Unfortunately there is only a short window between Sidney suspiciously eying the set menu and them being waved over to the Team Russia table.

Team unity means Sasha – Alexander Semin – shifts to make room for them.

Sasha being Sasha means that he doesn’t make a big deal about it. Well. Relatively.

“The pasta is bland,” he tells Sidney instead of saying hello.

Sidney eyes his lunch.

Evgeni feels like sighing. Why would Sasha say that?

Sasha though, doesn’t laugh. Instead he merely waits for Sidney to take a bite and then passes him the salt shaker.

 

 

(Sasha was also on the Russian team at the Turin games. He doesn’t really mention it).

 

 

For all that Sasha has garnered a reputation in the NHL for being enigmatic, he really isn’t. He has a sense of humour that sometimes is so sly that Evgeni misses the joke and he adores hockey in an endless kind of way. He lives it and breathes it, loves it more than enough to put up with what people say and write about him – and people tend to have a lot of opinions about him.

There is something unapologetic about him, and something familiar. Evgeni would never say it, but Sasha is a lot like Sidney.

They each have a certain way of negotiating the world around them.

Where Sidney smiles at jokes he doesn’t understand, Sasha pretends he doesn’t understand them. Evgeni wouldn’t be surprised if Sidney did the same if he played in the KHL. Neither of them are particularly good with people, and neither of them particularly care about it. Sidney tries, but Evgeni thinks that only because he thinks he should. Sasha mostly uses Alex as a shield to avoid everyone who isn’t Mike Green and Nicklas Bäckström. Evgeni doesn’t know either of them, but he has the feeling he would like them. Sasha might have an Alex sized blind spot, but it means something that Sasha calls them his friends.

He is loyal, and far to kind.  Far kinder than Evgeni or Alex deserve.

Evgeni has known Sasha for many years, and before that, he had known of Sasha and his talent. They’ve played against and with each other for years. Evgeni knows Sasha and Sasha knows him. During the year they spent stuck in the KHL instead of the NHL where they should have been, Sasha took all of Evgeni’s calls and listened to him talk for hours upon hours. For all that people talk about what he is and what he isn’t, he is Evgeni’s friend. He was always Evgeni’s friend, even when he and Alex were fighting. When every other Russian player in the NHL had something to tell Evgeni about how badly he was acting, Sasha didn’t bully Evgeni, or guilt him with patriotic speeches. Mostly he silently disapproved of the feud. Once or twice he told Evgeni he was being stupid.

Evgeni probably was. (Not that Alex needs to know that).

Now Evgeni’s friendship with Alex tentatively mended, Sasha rolls his eyes less and tells more of his clever jokes that Evgeni doesn’t always get. It feels like things are almost back to the way they should be.

 

 

(When Evgeni and Alex were feuding, Alex wasn’t the only person Evgeni wasn’t speaking to).

 

 

Team unity is Team Russia, or so Pasha told Evgeni more than once. Evgeni isn’t sure what Alex was told, only that out of the public statements they both made regarding the state of their friendship, Evgeni’s sounded stilted. Yet that isn’t surprising. Alex’s fluency with English had always been matched with confidence speaking it – confidence in himself, that Evgeni grew up attempting to emulate.

Maybe he’s still trying. It’s hard to know at this point.

 

 

At Vancouver, there is also Oksana.

Separate from everything – the in-fighting, the stress of representing his country, and the anxiety of playing with people he doesn’t really know – she is… Evgeni doesn’t know. He doesn’t have the words for how he feels. He only knows his heart does all kind of things when she waves at him from the stands.

 

 

When Oksana smiles back at Evgeni, he…

Evgeni loses track of time.

It’s after he has dinner with Oksana, he realises time isn’t the only thing he has lost track of. Specifically he returns to Team Russia’s apartments to find Sidney sitting awkwardly on the couch, watching Olympic speed skating highlights on TV with Sasha of all people. At the sound of the door, they both look up and make a face. Evgeni’s stomach drops with guilt.

Evgeni knows what he is like. He knows how he can be careless and forgetful. Like the teenager he no longer has the excuse of acting like, he is led by his heart more than his head.

“I’m sorry,” he tells Sidney. “I forgot we had plans.”

Sidney doesn’t quite meet Evgeni’s gaze. “We didn’t have plans.”

His voice is strange and he looks… embarrassed.

And oh. Now Evgeni feels even worse.

It’s one thing to forget plans with a friend; it’s another not to be there when they are in need of a friend.

Sidney is that – he is more than that.

Evgeni has always been proud to play alongside Sidney, more so to be counted among one of his friends.

One thing Evgeni didn’t expect when he left the KHL was to find a home in Pittsburgh, but he did. Sidney is part of that. Playing alongside him has always been something Evgeni took pride in, but more than that, Evgeni is proud to be counted among Sidney’s close friends. Sidney might not have a lot of friends, but he was a good friend – one of the best Evgeni has. They bring out the best in each other. Lately thought, it’s been Sidney bringing the best out of Evgeni rather than vice versa.

Growing up, Evgeni had to battle for everything. In Magnitogorsk, opportunities didn’t come easy or without strings attached. With Alex taking up the majority of the spotlight Evgeni had to make things happen through sheer determination. He knows that Alex did too, but sometimes it’s difficult to see that when he makes everything he does look so seemingly effortless. 

In the lead up to the winter games they were placed next to each other at a lot of official photo opportunities. It was something that Evgeni hadn’t particularly liked, but the point of it had been explained to him more than once. A lot more than once. Sidney had smiled a little when Evgeni complained to him. It had made Evgeni try to trip him on the ice at their next practice. Well, sort of try. Sidney was used to tricks and to pranks. He had a lifetime of experience being the focus of them. In the short time Evgeni had been in Pittsburgh he had heard so many second hand stories about the times Sidney had been left the tab at bars, or the times he had his clothes stolen from his locker or left damaged from cans of shaving cream. And of course the infamous time his World Juniors teammates rolled him up in a mattress, taped it up and then left him in the elevator. Evgeni heard how Sidney was in his boxers when they did it, and how he needed the lobby to let him back into his room.

It’s a story everyone in the league has heard. It’s one Evgeni has even heard from Sidney.

 

 

(Evgeni didn’t really try to trip Sidney at practice – but he is certain Sidney would have laughed if Evgeni had).

 

 

To make it up to Sidney, Evgeni insists on them having dinner together. Actual dinner, not a bland pasta salad at the cafeteria while a group of Canadian snow boarders and freestyle skiers eye Sidney with too much intention.

“You already ate,” Sidney says, when Evgeni asks.

“You haven’t,” Evgeni reminds him.

“I was going to,” Sidney mumbles.

 

 

Sasha being Sasha invites himself along to dinner too.

 

 

Alex being Alex finds the three of them and is delighted.

Evgeni wants to know how exactly Alex found them, but he isn’t sure if Alex would tell him. Alex has an internal radar for disaster. Or maybe he just has too many friends and friends of friends. More than a few people in the restaurant are wearing uniforms from various countries. Evgeni even spots the distinctive Team Sweden uniforms in the corner of his eye.

In the lead up to the games, they used to go out for dinner after the Capitals and Penguins played each other. Sometimes they took over a VIP table at a bar or club. However with Sidney tagging along more often than not, bars and clubs were out. Dinner however gave Alex the opportunity to loop his arm over Sidney’s shoulder and translate Russian menu’s for him. With pretty much every Russian player in the NHL keeping an eye on them, there was only so much that they could get away with. It wasn’t an on ice hit, but having Alex in Sidney’s space was enough to create a hint of tension in Evgeni’s jaw and amuse Alex.

Neither of them had been rookies for years, but no one would have guessed that by the way that had acted. Not then and not now either.

Making himself at home, Alex takes a sip of Sidney’s drink and asks why he wasn’t invited.

“Invitations don’t seem to be necessary,” Sasha says and for some reason that makes the corners of Alex’s eyes crinkle with mirth.

“Is that right?”

Sasha nods.

Sandwiched between Evgeni and Alex, Sidney oblivious. Perhaps purposefully. Perhaps just oblivious. It is difficult to tell. 

One drink becomes two, becomes Evgeni leaning back into the booth wishing he could have more. If he was anywhere else he would, but not here in Vancouver and not with so much on the line. Two drinks is the limit. Maybe it isn’t enough to give him any kind of buzz but exhausted he finds himself waning. Courtesy gives way part way through the meal, but Sidney doesn’t seem to mind when they slowly switch from English to Russian. 

In the middle of one of Alex’s longwinded stories about the Turin games, Evgeni’s phone lights up with a text.

He can’t help but smile when he sees it’s from Oksana.

With fingers than feel clumsy, he texts back – he enjoyed dinner too, he missed her too.

When he looks up from his phone, Alex’s story has ended, mostly because Alex is distracted by a Bulgarian speed skater. Everyone knows Alex is a terrible flirt – he has no shame or tact but somehow everyone is charmed by him. Well, almost everyone. Evgeni catches Sasha rolling his eyes as Alex hands over his number.

Sasha has far too much sense to be friends with either of them.

“We should find Sasha someone,” Evgeni says when Alex returns to their table, because they should.

While Alex always has someone or another he has starry eyes for and Oksana came all the way from Russia to see Evgeni, but Sasha is spending his evenings watching Olympic highlights with Sidney and inviting himself to dinner. That doesn’t seem right when he is much nicer and kinder and more sensible than both of them combined. He should have someone. 

Alex swallows the last of his drink. “God Zhenya, not in front of Sid.”

Evgeni rolls his eyes. “English, yes,” he says, switching over seamlessly. 

Sasha stiffens.

 

 

(When Alex goes outside to answer a call from his agent, Sasha switches seats, sliding over to sit next to Sidney and helping himself to a sip of Sidney's drink.

Evgeni gives him a look.)

 

 

“You’re such an idiot,” Alex tells Evgeni in the awkward taxi ride back to the Olympic Village.

Evgeni probably is, but he bristles anyway.

Fuck Alex.

 

 

The following day Evgeni isn’t hungover but it would probably be preferable to Sasha’s cold shoulder and Alex’s smirks.

 

 

“I’m not even going to ask,” Pasha says when Team Russia gathers for their morning training session.

Evgeni is glad.

 

 

Other members of Team Russia don’t have Pasha’s restraint.

Evgeni doesn’t know what to tell them, mostly because he hadn’t expected anyone to be asking what was up with Sidney and Sasha.

“You’re so self-absorbed,” Alex says. “Not everything is about us.”

Evgeni gives Alex a look, because really? Really?

 

 

It isn’t until later Evgeni pauses.

Sidney and Sasha?

 

 

Sidney is grumpy when Evgeni finds him in the Team Canada apartments. Apparently he and his roommate, Shea Webber, have been kicked off the table tennis table. It's something Evgeni chooses not to comment upon. Evgeni might understand Sidney, but he isn’t sure anyone understands Canadian’s in a group.

“Did I crash something last night?” Evgeni asks, feeling awkward and stupid and already embarrassed.

Sidney goes very still.

Evgeni – Evgeni heart does things. Sidney is Sidney and he is Evgeni’s friend and Evgeni might have a lot of friends but there is only one Sidney in his life.

“Maybe?” Sidney shrugs. “I don’t know.”

Evgeni exhales. So Sidney and Sasha. Okay. He finds himself saying that.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Sidney asks.

Evgeni nods. “Okay.”

 

 

Later though, Alex laughs and laughs and he would probably keep laughing if Evgeni didn’t elbow him.

“You really didn’t know?” Alex asks. “They’ve been dating for months.”

Evgeni feels annoyed and prickly but – “Months?”

Months? Evgeni thought this was a Vancouver thing.

Isn’t it a Vancouver thing?

Alex gives Evgeni a smug look. “Months and months.”

“Months and months?”

“You didn’t seriously think Sidney invited himself to all our dinners just to play peacekeeper in Gonch’s stead.”

And yes? Evgeni did think that. Which in retrospect is a more than a little embarrassing.

 

 

Sasha is less smug. Specifically, Sasha rolls his eyes at Evgeni but looks a little self-conscious afterwards.

“I thought you knew.”

Evgeni really didn’t.

 

 

So Sidney and Sasha. Okay. Evgeni can deal with that. (Mostly by not crashing their next date… or at least not on purpose).

 

 

 

 

.

**Author's Note:**

> Find/follow me on [tumblr](http://www.pr-scatterbrain.tumblr.com) if you want <3


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